1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a method and an apparatus for providing a character input interface, and more particularly, to a method and an apparatus for providing a convenient virtual keyboard in a touch terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, with the development of communication technology, an input device, and a display device, terminals having touch interfaces such as smartphones or tablet PCs have been widely used.
A touch interface for a terminal having a small screen such as a mobile phone or an MP3 player has been developed and provided. Consequently, the size of a screen is restricted and accordingly only one input mode (Korean language, English language, numerals, symbols, and the like) is provided to a user. However, recently, devices such as tablet PCs, which provide a relatively large screen, have become available. There is a need for an interface that enables a user to efficiently use a large screen.
Chunjiin and Naratgul keyboard layouts have been widely used as a keyboard interface in a small terminal such as a mobile phone. Now, a keyboard interface for a small terminal is applied to a terminal having a large screen. The size of each key and a distance between keys in a keyboard are relatively great to significantly increase a moving distance of a finger.
Further, a QWERTY keyboard interface is known as an intuitive and rapid interface. However, to implement a QWERTY keyboard on a touchscreen, a user should put fingers in the air unless the user contacts the fingers on the touchscreen for a short time when he is inputting characters. Because of this inconvenience, a user frequently uses a QWERTY keyboard interface using one finger instead of two. However, when a QWERTY keyboard interface is provided at the whole lower end of a large terminal such as a tablet PC, the distance one would have to move his finger becomes quite large.
Moreover, as the world becomes more globalized, one may frequently need to simultaneously input in a plurality of foreign languages, including, for example, the Korean language and other languages. However, it is very inconvenient for a user to change input languages every time.